The Eye of Eternity: A Raid Overview

The Eye of Eternity gives us a fast-paced experience with the blue dragon Malygos. In this fight, we see one of the new features that Wrath of the Lich King brought us: vehicles! See my interpretation and overview of the fight below the cut.

Note: For an ability listing, check out the official NPC page for Malygos! This overview is done according to the 25-man (Heroic) setting. The 10-man version may have different ranks of abilities than what is listed, as well as a smaller raid setup.

Phase Overviews

Phase 1Beginning in the first phase, this is a relatively easy phase and something of a tank and spank fight. The tank picks Malygos up and faces him away from the raid to prevent Arcane Breath from reaching the general populace. Every so often, a Power Spark comes out from a portal located between the pillars in the north, south, east, and west parts of the room. These need to be taken down as soon as possible by all damage dealers, as they buff Malygos' damage by 50% if they reach him. Malygos will occasionally send all players in the raid into a Vortex -- spinning each raid member around the entire room, and finally dropping players in the center of the platform. The Sparks will not move toward the boss during this time, but they will continue to do so once you fall.

With the addition of Death Knights in WotLK, use their ever-so-handy Death Grip ability to bring the Spark close to the raid (while keeping it stunned), so members do not have to move much from their original spots.

You cannot use anything other than instant cast spells in a Vortex, and you take a large amount of damage over time (as well as fall damage), so instant healing over time spells are essential, as well as having a decent amount of health.

Directly after a Vortex is an ideal time to pop all cooldowns, so you can maximize your time to output damage.

After a Spark is killed, they each give off a stackable buff that increases each raid member's damage by 50% if stood within. Keeping two of these buffs up from a Spark after a Vortex is optimal.

Phase 2After two (optimal executed) Vortices, or when Malygos is at 50% health, the second phase begins. Instead of fighting you directly, the dragon instead spawns NPCs on flying discs (see below) which need to be brought down. Throughout this phase, protective bubbles (which shrink over time) are sent to a random location on the floor of the platform. These bubbles protect your raid from 50% of the magic damage dealt by the NPCs, so it is vital that everyone stands within them. The first type of NPC, the Nexus Lords, hover near the raid and need to be tanked while still in the protective bubbles. Whenever one of these NPCs fall, they leave their disc for a raid member to take over. The raid member who took over the disc now needs to fly and take down the other NPC type, the Scions of Eternity. With the Scions also leaving their discs behind, you need to rinse and repeat in order to take every NPC down. Players on a disc doe not take damage, and therefore do not need to be in the protective bubbles.

The raid does not need to move to every bubble that spawns. Instead, going to every other bubble is sufficient in order to maximize the raids DPS. Doing this requires that the raid stands directly in the middle of the bubble to prevent any unnecessary damage if and when the bubble gets to be rather small in circumference.

Sending your melee DPS in on discs before ranged DPS is suggested in order to maximize DPS efficiency on the NPCs.

Once each NPC is killed, Malygos will be targetable for a short period of time. Use this time wisely to do as much damage as you can.

Phase 3In this final phase, the floor breaks underneath you and you are sent flying into space. You are eventually plopped onto a dragon, which will be your vehicle in taking down Malygos. He is situated in the center of the space provided, and the raid should spread out evenly around him to prevent getting hit by the Static Fields that spawn all over. You must get combo points on the boss in order to do any kind of finishing move, which is required in this fight.

There are different strategies that guilds can use in this phase. In order to deal sufficient damage from my experience, casting Flame Spike three times to get combo points on Malygos, followed by pushing Engulf in Flames as a finishing move is the best DPS rotation. Rinse and repeat! There is a chance Malygos will target you and cast Surge of Power. If this is done, you must either spam yourself with heals or cast your Flame Shield (while targeting your dragon!) in order to survive. Make sure you have enough combo points and energy to cast the shield!

Tip: Having trouble with the dragons in phase 3? Try practicing with the daily quest Aces High!.

Final Thoughts

As a healer by trade, I enjoy a fight that gets me moving around and doing more than smashing a few healing buttons. And with WotLK bringing us the new vehicle system, I enjoyed seeing these new mechanics in boss fights. The new system wasn't exactly as thrilling as I was hoping for, but it was fun regardless. Does your strategy differ?

Comments

Comment by Slapdash

on 2009/02/23 11:43:40

You cannot use anything other than instant cast spells in a Vortex, and you take a large amount of damage over time (as well as fall damage), so instant healing over time spells are essential, as well as having a decent amount of health.

I don't know why so many people says this, but it's simply untrue. As a Hunter (don't know about other classes), I can still cast my Steady Shots as per usual just fine while in a Vortex.

This is true, however there is knockback every 1/2 second during the vortex and it is essential that EVERYONE gets at least one heal. So in the 10 seconds or so people need to get hots thrown on them ideally. but having said this it is worth a shaman healer or pally healer at least TRY and cast a flash heal or lesser healing wave to help out once they have exhausted their instant casts. It is also helpful to have everyone topped off going into this phase so circle of healing is very nice, as is Prayer of Mending while in the vortex. Priest and Druid healers are ideal for this fight.

Comment by Billa

on 2009/02/23 11:53:02

I dont know if anyone mentioned it here, but if you are a combat rogue, Killing Spree will get you out of the vortex (I've done it myself so dont say you cant :p )

Comment by hadesrogue

on 2009/02/28 18:31:26

I dont know if anyone mentioned it here, but if you are a combat rogue, Killing Spree will get you out of the vortex (I've done it myself so dont say you cant :p )

this is true I do it everytime. it is nice to get more damage in and not take damage

Comment by zakarthur

on 2009/06/29 02:50:36

it is not true that you can only do instant casts. i can sometimes drop a lesser healing wave unbuffed in the vortex and you can actually (if you have enough haste) drop a healing wave or chain heal with the buff (tidal waves) from droping a riptide.

Comment by kgurnhill

on 2009/07/24 14:22:33

Very Nice post! :DVery informative - Gave link to the whole guild because it was soo awesome! :D (No sarcasm btw)

A++++ :D

Thanksies! :D

Comment by Bioheart

on 2009/07/24 14:27:53

Thread necromancy ftl.

Comment by ArgentSun

on 2009/07/24 14:58:00

Blogs cannot be necro'd :)

Comment by Bioheart

on 2009/07/24 20:31:30

Ah but mate, i said thread, not Blog.

Comment by Blat4Ever

on 2009/08/27 14:19:48

Malygos certainly have a big nose. (Refeering to the first pic)

Comment by xxguesswho3745xx

on 2009/08/27 14:57:27

A double necro?

Comment by khronos25

on 2010/03/11 22:34:51

After the weekly raid came out this place has become hated by most people. Personally, I have my dps use a rotation of 1,1,1,2,3 then repeat. I found that having them cast a heal on themselves helps a lot with people not dying as well as the healers doing their job of course.

Comment by Daddyllama

on 2010/03/11 23:13:39

Holy Necro Batman

Comment by tyrentofthought

on 2010/03/11 23:50:27

Holy Necro Batman

O, rly?

Blogs cannot be necro'd :)

:P

Comment by Hurono

on 2010/03/12 06:22:18

Eye of Eternity: Necromancerz raisin ur posts 2 1st pg lolz.

Comment by Orranis

on 2010/03/12 07:07:02

The most underplayed raid of all time.

Comment by Erethzium

on 2010/03/12 07:22:38

IMO EoE was really fun. I remember the first time I downed it on 25man, I felt like I just won the lottery or something. =P

I just don't get how people failed at the simple concept of "Don't stand in the electricity"...is it that hard to press the Q key (or whichever you have binded to strafe left) for 2 seconds when you see your screen flashing with lightning? I've watched people just standing there in the lightning until they die. =/